Sports

Upcoming look for Cañon City Tigers, Florence Huskies prep teams

By Brandon Hopper

hopperb@canoncitydailyrecord.com

Posted:
03/27/2014 12:24:40 PM MDT

Trey Owen and the Cañon City Tigers baseball team begins league play on Tuesday. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)

It's the time of the season when league play starts for most prep teams, when games become more intense as rivalries renew. For the Tiger programs, it'll be the last time in the foreseeable future that they'll compete in the South-Central League — they'll move to the Colorado Springs Metro League next year.

Many teams are playing catchup after their non-league games were cancelled due to bad weather.

Here's a look at where each team stands as Spring Break ends for Cañon City and begins for Florence:

Cañon City baseball

After two games Saturday, the Tigers (2-0) will focus on what the South-Central League is about to present. At 4 p.m. Tuesday, the Tigers will play the Pueblo Centennial Bulldogs (2-1) at Runyon Field in Pueblo.

Following that, the Tigers get Palmer on the road, before going full throttle into league play with Pueblo's South (3-3), West (2-2) and East (2-2).

Until Saturday, the Tigers had more games cancelled because of weather (three) than they have played (two).

The top three finishers in the league will qualify for the playoffs and there are a maximum of six at-large spots for the state's non-automatics. Last season, the Tigers finished second in the S-CL.

Florence baseball

The Huskies (3-3) were supposed to open their Tri-Peaks League West schedule Saturday against Manitou Springs in a doubleheader, but instead, the Mustangs asked the Huskies to reschedule. T-PL games are always scheduled to be doubleheaders played on Saturdays.

On April 8, the Huskies will travel to play The Classical Academy (2-0), in a game that was originally a doubleheader before TCA reneged. Two days later, the Huskies will host Manitou Springs (1-1) for one game (the other date is still being decided).

Florence has failed to put any kind of a streak together so far, alternating wins and losses in its first six games.

Six of 12 teams in the T-PL qualify for the playoffs, and that'll be determined based on finish in the crossover games between T-PL West and East opponents.

The Tigers are "all S-CL, all the time" now that they're back from Spring Break. No non-league matches remain on the team's schedule.

Pat Callahan and his Tigers (3-3 overall, 1-2 S-CL) will play Wednesday against Pueblo Central (2-2-1, 0-2) at Dutch Clark Stadium. Following that, Cañon City will take on Pueblo South (3-4, 3-1) on Friday and Pueblo East (1-4, 0-2) on April 8.

In a busy week before Spring Break, the Tigers finished their stint 2-0 to push their record back to .500.

To get an automatic berth into the playoffs, the Tigers must finish in the top two in the S-CL. From there, eight teams get at-large bids, but the S-CL has not fared well in recent history in garnering any of those spots.

Florence soccer

The Huskies (3-1-1) will begin Region 2 play on Friday when they host highly ranked Manitou Springs (3-2).

Bill Vinelli's team will follow that with a stretch against The Classical Academy (1-4) and Salida (4-1) for league matches.

The region gets three auto qualifiers into the tournament, and there are five at-large bids to vie for. Last year, the Huskies received one of the at-large spots to get into the state tournament for the first time in program history.

Cañon City, Florence track and field

There's no true league schedule for track and field, athletes compete against whichever schools are at the meet.

On April 5, Cañon City will compete at the Palmer Terror Invite at Gary Berry Stadium, and Florence will be at Pueblo County High School for the Hornet Invitational.

The teams will be at the John Tate Cup on April 11-12 at Dutch Clark Stadium.

Cañon City tennis

The Tigers will be at Air Academy at 4 p.m. Wednesday and host Salida on Friday.

Their S-CL portion begins April 10 at Pueblo County, followed by league matches against East and Pueblo South the following week.

Cañon City, Florence golf

Look for season previews early next week as both teams will be at the Pueblo South Invite at 9 a.m. Thursday at Elmwood Golf Course.